Sergio Pérez said it was difficult for the Racing Point F1 Team to show its true pace during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after being embroiled in traffic for the majority of the race.
Starting tenth, the Mexican lost a couple of positions at the start at Albert Park, but the gamble to pit early to jump others ahead of him did not pay off as he found himself stuck at the back of a train of cars being held up by Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi, who was on a different tyre strategy.
Despite finding a way ahead of Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon, who made a mistake on the exit of turn ten, he was unable to make any more gains, and finished on the tail of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris in thirteenth.
“I’m disappointed to come away from Melbourne missing out on points,” admitted Pérez, who saw his new Racing Point team-mate Lance Stroll finish ninth to claim two points. “It was quite a difficult race for me from lap one because I made a poor start and lost a couple of places before turn one.
“Overtaking was extremely difficult, so we tried the undercut with the strategy but it didn’t really work out for us. After my pit stop I was stuck in traffic for the rest of the race.
“I was able to get ahead of Albon, when he made a mistake, but apart from that it was difficult to really show our pace.”
